Historical background - Over 150 years ago the Sodbuster Plough was invented to plough the hard dry ground of the Great Western Plains of the USA. Because of the dry arid conditions, the topsoil was baked into an extremely hard crust known as 'Sod'. Traditional iron ploughs were not strong enough, and the 'Sodbuster Plough' made of steel was introduced to do the job. The 1862 Homestead Act provided 160 acres of free land to anyone willing to set up a farm in the Great Plains. The top layer of earth or Sod was so tough that it was used as building bricks by Homesteaders in the Great Plains. Other inventions around this time were, barbed wire to fence off and protect farm land, horse-drawn reapers, binders and threshers and combine harvesters.